The Druck&Medien Awards, which have been presented annually by Deutsche Drucker Verlagsgesellschaft since 2005, are the most important awards in the German printing industry. The glittering awards gala in Berlin was hosted by TV presenter Laura Wontorra. Individuals, teams and companies were honoured in 25 categories.
The highlight of the gala was the Fujifilm Gold Award for the Print Shop Manager of the Year 2023, which went to Diana Esser, authorised signatory of the ESSER Group. This makes Diana Esser the first woman ever to receive this prestigious award.
The printing industry has been under severe pressure for several years. Falling print runs in all areas of printing and the increasing speed of digitalisation are the biggest challenges facing the entire industry. "The development of a company and an entire industry depends heavily on its managers," said jury chairman Bernhard Niemela in his laudatory speech. "Clear and forward-looking strategies and their successful implementation are more decisive success factors than ever before. And strong personalities are needed to implement such strategies." The jury also recognised the entrepreneur's sense of social responsibility. According to Bernhard Niemela, the vote was very clear.
Diana Esser clearly had the sympathy of the expert audience on her side.
When Diana Esser took to the podium after the announcement of her victory, she was greeted by standing ovations and frenetic applause from over 400 guests. Mrs Esser was visibly moved. In her speech, she thanked the jury, all employees, customers, suppliers and, above all, her husband Markus Esser with great emotion. The sympathy of the professional audience was unmistakably and unmistakably on her side.
Together with her husband Markus, Managing Director of the ESSER Group, Diana Esser manages the group of companies, which consists of three locations, as an authorised signatory with a clear digital printing strategy. The implementation of this strategy began back in 2001 and has been consistently expanded step by step ever since. The specialisation in digital printing not only led to a major increase in expertise, but also paved the way from a pure print service provider to a fulfilment service provider, with which the group can also offer complete logistics concepts thanks to the direct connection to the customer systems.
Diana Esser is a lateral thinker "with a clever head"
The ESSER Group has also been growing through acquisitions since 2017. Most recently, the Göttingen-based book specialist Hubert&Co. was acquired in 2022. This marks ESSER's entry into the high-quality book sector. The great ambitions in this segment were also underpinned by the strengthening of the management team.
Diana Esser is a lateral thinker "with a clever head" according to Bernhard Niemela. Together with her husband, she manages the ESSER Group and "leaves nothing to chance". She is a "future-orientated entrepreneur" and is therefore a "more than worthy winner" for the jury of the 19th Print & Media Awards.
digitaldruck-esser.de
d.esser(at)esser-ps.de